“I am a pure amateur photographer since end of the 70′s. I switched to digital seven years ago, but I’ve worked some 12 years with Photoshop. At the Antwerp Academy of Arts I followed a three years course in ‘Photography and Digital Imaging.’
“I am also still active in a major Belgian photo club and in FIAP events.
“My professional background lies in the Graphic Arts Industry (Agfa-Gevaert N.V.) in several marketing and customer support functions.
“I live near Antwerp, Belgium.”
(Photographs Courtesy Jef Van den Houte © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved)
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Night Curves
Image taken in the new railway station of Liège Guillemins, Belgium. The latter is a creation of the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It’s a night shot. I wanted to render the pure curves and lines of the architecture. To emphasize it more, I turned it into B/W. The image is flipped vertically. I felt it gave so a stronger and more dynamic composition than the original capture
Original Version
Patches of Light
It’s a combination of two photos, taken in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The building with the windows was photographed in late afternoon light, creating a beautiful soft light play on it.
The image in the back was created through a vertical motion blur of an other building. I felt it gave a beautiful, contrasting composition with the windows building. I made an extensive tutorial on the making of this image at 1X: http://1x.com/#!/tutorials/28647/patches-of-light
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Sky Meeting
An image taken in an old brewery in Antwerp, Belgium.
It shows – partly rusted – beer containers (not used any more). I did stand in the middle of them and made this shot with an ultra wide angle, capturing all the surrounding containers in an almost symmetric composition. Through it, I got all these converging lines going to one ‘meeting ‘point.
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Spirals
It’s a staircase in an well known office building in Antwerp, photographed from the bottom to the top of the turning stairs. The original image is a combination of bluish marble staircases and yellow banisters. Although it gives so a nice colour combination, I prefer this B/W version. For me it creates a more pure rhythm of tones of light. It does it in an almost abstract way, eliminating all ‘documentary’ colour information.
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The Lamp
An image taken in Rotterdam, Netherlands in low evening light, creating these light patterns on the building. It’s also taken with a ultra wide angle lens. The original sky was a rather dull one.
So I replaced it by an other somewhat cloudy sky. But I felt that the clouds in the sky didn’t fit with the clean lines and shapes in the building. There I applied a directional motion blur on the sky.
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The Rocket
An image taken at the Medienhafen in Düsseldorf, Germany. These buildings are a creation of the famous Canadian-American architect Gehry. The building at the bottom has a silver look, the upper one is completely white. A reason for me to completely turn it into B/W.
This image it also flipped vertically, to give this impression in the composition as if the upper building is a rocket striking the building below. To strengthen it, I applied a direction motion blur in the sky (with a slight zoom effect).
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Jef Van den Houte shows us the human world in bold and imaginative ways. His work teaches us that travel photography can encompass what is around us in a splendid and graphic form, exuding what he refers to as “pure rhythm of tones.” He is a mentor to aspiring photographers, serving as a Gallery Curator at 1x.com, where he writes tutorials on photographic techniques. Photo Travel Review Magazine recognizes his work as among the best in the world.
